Was awarded the best young player at WC98. A world cup with teams 3x better than this world cup. He emerged as one of the most hyped player in the world in a tournament that features the likes of Zidane, Batistuta, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Suker. He was ranked 4th in the world player of the year at the age of 18 beating the likes of Bergkamp, Davids and Rivaldo. He was also the youngest player in history to be nominated for balon d'Or. And he actually won the Balon d'Or when he was 20. Something Mbappe won't do. He already had 50 career goals by the time he was 19. So it's quite silly to say he was 'NOT' as good as mbappe. I know Mbappe is the hottest thing in football, but football didn't start in 2018.

Was awarded the best young player at WC98. A world cup with teams 3x better than this world cup. He emerged as one of the most hyped player in the world in a tournament that features the likes of Zidane, Batistuta, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Suker. He was ranked 4th in the world player of the year at the age of 18 beating the likes of Bergkamp, Davids and Rivaldo. He was also the youngest player in history to be nominated for balon d'Or. And he actually won the Balon d'Or when he was 20. Something Mbappe won't do. He already had 50 career goals by the time he was 19. So it's quite silly to say he was 'NOT' as good as mbappe. I know Mbappe is the hottest thing in football, but football didn't start in 2018.

Owen actually beat out a very World Class Raul that year for Balon d'Or to which I still get upset about but whatever. Owen really was not some speed merchant tap in specialists, he was good, very good actually.

Anyway, not surprising Tito thinks that, he has always been quite critical of players. Standard post from him.

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in 98 he was a substitute for most of the games he featured in. it was a great goal, but compare that hype to another youngster who's been on the winning team, and scored in the biggest final in the sport. now play by play owen at 19 and mbappe at 19, (ignoring what they have or haven't won at team level), just off pure skill, i'm going with mbappe. and owen getting (i don't believe you 'win' these awards) the ballon d'or, is actually a huge reason why i value the eye test over who bbc decides to hype

they were close to running the hype train for harry kane; like they did with owen and even david beckham (in fairness to him he's actually super talented and a better english footballer than owen)

just to throw this out there, the best footballers in that time frame owen was given that award were figo and rivaldo in my humble opinion, the crime of that ballon d'or to me was not even that raul didn't get it. figo was boss in that 99 00 01 time frame. but we should really assess this mbappe vs owen thing in the rb cos i'm really not getting how its even a debate between owen and mbappe at that age. owen was fast and a good finisher, that's where it stops

Was awarded the best young player at WC98. A world cup with teams 3x better than this world cup. He emerged as one of the most hyped player in the world in a tournament that features the likes of Zidane, Batistuta, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Suker. He was ranked 4th in the world player of the year at the age of 18 beating the likes of Bergkamp, Davids and Rivaldo. He was also the youngest player in history to be nominated for balon d'Or. And he actually won the Balon d'Or when he was 20. Something Mbappe won't do. He already had 50 career goals by the time he was 19. So it's quite silly to say he was 'NOT' as good as mbappe. I know Mbappe is the hottest thing in football, but football didn't start in 2018.

And the reason is none of you actually saw Michael Owen live to realize what a ridiculous over-hype it was... given that EPL back then was actually not even a top league (Serie A was by far the best followed by La Liga; EPL was pretty much what Bundi is today in terms of its relative standing). Owen wasn't even a starter. AND England lost in the round of 16... and he didn't have 50 goals by then FFS. He had 24 with exactly 1 in european competition. I mean WTF.

Owen was hyped because he played for England and a Liverpool player. The fact that Mbappe is hyped despite playing in Ligue 1 and Monaco/PSG shows how good he really is. He got hyped not because of league... but because of elimination rounds of CL. Big difference.

And Rivaldo and Davids weren't in the running for best young player ffs. Rivaldo was 26 and already a star while Edgar Davids was also 25 and well established.

God people. You should just stop talking about anything prior to 2006 for most of you since you really have no idea what you're talking about.

I mean, I get that you love this kid, and you can debate opinions about Owen, but why you gotta argue against actual facts? The fact that he had some 50 careers goal at 19 is true. No need to pull bs numbers to disagree with RG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEmcW59Hz6MWatching clips of Messi and Cristiano from when they were 19 reminded me of how much their game changed throughout the years and now i'm excited and curious to see how Mbappe develops. I feel like he could really thrive as a ST but then again he might be wasted there with how teams defend these days. If he can develop his passing and playmaking , a free role behind a 9 might work but a scoring LW (i.e. CR mid 20's) seems like the safest bet.

I am starting to have doubts over this guy's mentality. Imagine nominating yourself over more deserving candidates Zero humility. Seems like a little success has totally gotten into his head. Typical.

Waiting for dat positive spin to this from Sports

i personally don't see anything wrong with that. why should he belittle himself. now if he cannot deliver after hyping up himself, that's something different. but a bit of confidence is good, i'd rather that than false humility or the same old media friendly answers athletes are accustomed to giving

I can see why people make a case for Mbappe being the best teenager ever. He gets people off their seat with his talent. Not only does he have amazing athleticism, but it is his decision making and maturity that really stands out.

So when Sports says Mbappe is talented in a different way to Messi, R9 and others, he's correct. All three of them are physically gifted and technically gifted. I'd say Messi and R9 were more technically gifted than Mbappe, but I also think Mbappe has a better footballing brain than they did at their age.

I mean when Messi was younger he was practically a pure dribbler. He was a better dribbler and better link-up player than Mbappe at 19, but his decision making was more iffy than Mbappe. He used to go on a lot of 1v5 runs that didn't always pan out. He was also more limited in the sense that he was a RW who was best with the ball at his feet.

When I watch Mbappe, I see him as the face of the new gen of attacking players. He can play anywhere in the frontline and play different roles. If you need an outlet on the wing, he'll maintain width and make runs in behind for days (France 2018). If you need a 1v1 dribbler, he can go past his man. If you need a supporting striker to play right off the CF, he'll score for fun (Monaco 2017).

So I mean to be able to play all those kind of roles at a high level at his age is incredibly impressive. It's no surprise that someone like Wenger lights up when talking about Mbappe and compares him to Pele. What Mbappe is doing at his age isn't normal at all.

Now as for teenage R9, he was arguably the most electric player ever. Now imagine having someone that athletically dominant combined with world class technique and a sense for goal ffs. He was also capable of leading the line or playing just off the CF. Yet like Messi his decision making was also iffy at times.

So yeah I do think Messi and R9 were more gifted than Mbappe on the ball. However, if someone makes the case that Mbappe was better, I wouldn't necessarily dispute it and I can see where they're coming from.

But in the end we are just talking about their levels as teenagers which in the grand scheme of things doesn't mean very much.

Messi went on to become one of the top 3 players ever. He turned into a world class goalscorer, dribbler, and creator and arguably has the GOAT decision making on the ball.

R9 never really went on to fulfill his true potential due to injuries and mentality, and by that I mean competing with the likes of Pele and Maradona. However, he's a legend and had a more than fine career.

Now I can't really say what Mbappe's ceiling will be. He has the chance to have a better CV than both R9 and Messi, since he has the WC out of the way and is part of a golden French generation that will have many opportunities to win even more international trophies. As for the CL he has the better part of 15 years to win a few which I'm sure he will. If he continues his form, I'm sure Ballon d'ors and breaking records will eventually follow.

I'm most curious about Mbappe's future development though. I wonder what type of forward he'll end up specializing as.

Will he become a 9 and lead the line himself?

Will he specialize as a goalscoring wide forward like his idol Cristiano?

Will he turn into a scorer/creator and learn from Neymar like Neymar learned from Messi.

So yeah it'll be interesting to see how his career progresses. Will he become the new king of football? If he's lucky with injuries and remains professional, I honestly think he will.

He has 3 more wold cups Casci... to go along with 4 more Euros and 13-15 CLs.

When you become this good so early AND you have the right teams around you... the sky's the limit really. As you said, it will come down to luck and injuries for him. If he stays on path, greatness is a certainty... it's a matter of what level of greatness.

His future lies as a scorer from wherever. He just needs a central striker to pair up with. I think it's a big waste to leave him on a wing. He needs to touch as many balls as possible.

As Mole mentioned during the WC... it's not like France even featured him lol. They should have given him the ball a lot more.

the only thing wrong with messi when he was younger was injuries. i think his decision making was quite good for his age, it helped that he had an eto'o who knew how to make runs into space and also a ronaldinho playing alongside him. he wasn't the passer he is now, but he wasn't making gaffes all over the place, he got defenders in a lot of foul trouble too, its just that he was fragile and got injured a lot. decision making was never messi's problem

A player's decision making absolutely improves with good coaching and experience.

Also a young Messi obviously had good decision making. All i'm saying is that I've never seen a more mature young player than Mbappe. Also decision making isn't just playing the pass after the dribble it's making the best choice possible in a given context.

He used to run too much with the ball and went on a lot of 1v5 runs. If you're constantly looking to dribble despite the context that has something to do with your decision making. It's no surprise once he added a bit of patience to his game he became the best in the world.

I don't even see it as a slight against Leo. It's just a classic case of a player needing to fix some issues during his development. I agree that his biggest issue was injuries and not decision making lol. I just think Mbappe has a better footballing brain at the same age.

You also have to differentiate between decision making built because of repetition on the training pitch for specific game situations, and just how smart a player is.

I take a player like Sterling who we all commended for improving under Pep but to me that's a bit artificial because the type of juego de posicion Pep preaches, puts his forward in very specific situations and sometimes give them a set number of decision to take based off where they touch the ball. If you reduce the number of decisions a player must make on a play from 4 to 2 then it improves the outcome of his play.

But you watch him with England and the increment is not as pronounced. He has many more decisions to take on the ball because the game situations aren't as repeated and thus, he looks worse. I am always suspicious of youngsters doing well with Pep because of these parameters.

If you ask me who is the more intelligent player between a guy like Sterling and Mbappe, it's like night and day, Mbappe is a natural.